I married you
for all the wrong reasons,
charmed by your
dangerous family history,
by the innocent muscles, bulging
like hidden weapons
under your shirt,
by your naive ties, the colors
of painted scraps of sunset.
I was charmed too
by your assumptions
about me: my serenity—
that mirror waiting to be cracked,
my flashy acrobatics with knives
in the kitchen.
How wrong we both were
about each other,
and how happy we have been.
This poem comes from Linda Pastan’s book called Queen of a Rainy Country, published in 2006. The first line of this poem restates the title and gives the reader an idea of what it’s going to be about. The second line adds a twist to what the reader may think the poem is about because it gives a negative feel to the idea of marriage. She goes on to say that she was charmed by his “dangerous family history,” which is written in dactylic meter. I believe that is meant to give the line more meaning and cause it to stand out. The next line begins to describe her husband’s physical attributes, starting with his muscles being described as “innocent” and “bulging.” The next line is a simile comparing his muscles to weapons hidden underneath his shirt. There is some contrast between the ideas of innocence and weapons. The imagery of them being “hidden” could be used to mean that he was hiding more than just the muscles. The next line describes the ties he would wear and how the colors alluded to a sunset. Just from the imagery in these two lines, the reader can begin to visualize a picture of what this man looks like. There is a noticeable shift in the next stanza because the poet goes from talking about her misconceptions of her husband to her husband’s misconceptions of her. She says she was charmed by the fact that he assumed she was a docile woman when she mentions her “serenity,” when really she was just a “mirror waiting to be cracked.” He also assumed her to be a domesticated woman and do the chores of a housewife, like preparing meals. She goes on to reflect about how delusional they both were about each other in the third and second to last lines. The last line of the poem is my favorite by far. I love how throughout the whole poem, the reader is expecting it to end in divorce when really, they have been very happy with one another. This poem relates to an interview I found with the poet where she talks about being married in college and expected to “have a homemade dessert on the table for [her] husband every night.” She felt the pressures of marriage and stopped writing poetry for about ten years. She began writing again after a while and I think this poem was directly inspired by this time in her life.
When our cars touched
When you lifted the hood of mine
To see the intimate workings underneath,
When we were bound together
By a pulse of pure energy,
When my car like the princess
In the tale woke with a start,
I thought why not ride the rest of the way together?
I picked this poem by Linda Pastan because it is full of imagery and double meanings. The poet does something very interesting with the poem by moving over the last word of each line in every line except the last. The whole poem is about jump starting someone’s car but could also be seen as jump starting a relationship between two people. Literally, the first line is about the two cars coming close enough together so that the wires could connect the two. It could also be taken to mean the two people are touching one another and beginning to feel close. Next, the hood of the car was lifted, which could also be seen as the people letting their guard down around one another in a relationship. After the hood of the car was lifted, they were able to see the “intimate workings underneath.” Once two people let their guard down in a relationship, they will be able to get to know each other’s true personalities and become intimate with one another. Next, the cars were “bound” together with the jumper cables just like two people bound to one another. When jumpstarting a car, you turn the working car and allow the energy to flow from there to the car with the dead battery. This is what the poet is referring to when she describes a “pulse of pure energy.” This could be the “spark” that two people in love feel when they are around one another. She then refers to her car as a “princess.” I believe she is referring to it being temperamental and not choosing to start; like the world will happen at her own sweet time. When she talks about how the princess awoke with a start, it calls to mind images from classic Disney movies where the princess is kissed by the prince and automatically awakes. The poet ends this poem with an interrogative sentence. She asks “why not ride the rest of the way together?” which can also be taken to mean that she wishes to spend the rest of her life married to her lover. While reading this poem, I had to look up the steps to jump starting a car because I have absolutely no idea how to do it myself. I have attached the link that gives step by step instructions and it goes along with the steps in the poem pretty well.
When I taught you
at eight to ride
a bicycle, loping along
beside you
as you wobbled away
on two round wheels,
my own mouth rounding
in surprise when you pulled
ahead down the curved
path of the park,
I kept waiting
for the thud
of your crash as I
sprinted to catch up,
while you grew
smaller, more breakable
with distance,
pumping, pumping
for your life, screaming
with laughter,
the hair flapping
behind you like a
handkerchief waving
goodbye.
The poem “To A Daughter Leaving Home” by Linda Pastan was published in The Imperfect Paradise in 1988. The whole poem is about a young girl learning to ride a bike, but it is really a metaphor for a daughter moving out. It is written in free verse. It starts off with a parent reminiscing on the time when he or she taught their child something but it not very specific. The poet leaves who the speaker is ambiguous and we are not sure if it is the mother or father speaking. We learn in the third line that it is in fact a bicycle that the child is learning to ride. She makes it clear that the parent is right alongside the young girl as she is not yet steady on her own. Pastan uses imagery by comparing the round tires to the rounded mouth of the parent, looking on in shock as the daughter begins to pedal on her own. She goes on to say that the path the child has ahead of her is curvy. This could be a symbol or foreshadowing of the life the girl has ahead of her. Perhaps the poet knows that the daughter might face some obstacles later in life that she will have to overcome. The parent keeps waiting for the girl to fall. Pastan uses the rhetorical device of onamonapia when she says that the parent was expecting to hear a thud when the child fell. The parent runs to catch up with the girl, but her attempts are futile because the daughter goes faster and creates a bigger distance between them. It says that she grew smaller and more breakable as she continued to ride. If we look at this poem as a metaphor for a daughter moving out, I feel like that’s actually quite the opposite of what is happening. The daughter has grown older and become more strong and independent so she is moving out on her own. The daughter continues to pedal faster and is clearly very excited to feel so free. Pastan uses a simile when she compares the girl’s hair to a handkerchief blowing in the wind. The young girl on the bike is not actually leaving her parents but the older girl who is moving out is probably waving goodbye to her parents.
What we want
is never simple.
We move among the things
we thought we wanted:
a face, a room, an open book
and these things bear our names--
now they want us.
But what we want appears
in dreams, wearing disguises.
We fall past,
holding out our arms
and in the morning
our arms ache.
We don't remember the dream,
but the dream remembers us.
It is there all day
as an animal is there
under the table,
as the stars are there
even in full sun.
The poem “What We Want” is written in free verse and does not rhyme. It is very typical of the poet because she often writes about common, everyday experiences but is able to reflect on them in a deep way. I love how the way this poem is written is very simple but she is talking about a complicated matter, which she says in the second line. She goes on to talk about how materialistic people can be and how sometimes we obsess over things so much that they become a part of us. Those things are just what we think we need but what we actually need sometimes appears to us in our self-conscious. We move among our desires in our everyday life but our true needs come out in our dreams. She uses a metaphor to show that our true needs sometimes wear “masks” so it can be difficult for us to tell what is truly necessary. Sometimes, we are not able to recognize these necessities when we awake because they appeared in a different, and most likely complicated manner, in our dreams. Also, we forget the dream once we wake up, but it will always be there in our subconscious. It is as though we know that there is something we should remember once we wake up but we are unable to. She uses personification when she says that the dreams remember us, despite the fact that we do not remember it. She uses a simile to compare the dream to an animal that hides from view during the day. She uses another simile to then compare the dream to the stars. It will always be there, we just can’t see it during the day. It is blocked out by our conscious mind; much like the light from the stars is blocked out by the bright sun.
By Linda Pastan
I married you
for all the wrong reasons,
charmed by your
dangerous family history,
by the innocent muscles, bulging
like hidden weapons
under your shirt,
by your naive ties, the colors
of painted scraps of sunset.
I was charmed too
by your assumptions
about me: my serenity—
that mirror waiting to be cracked,
my flashy acrobatics with knives
in the kitchen.
How wrong we both were
about each other,
and how happy we have been.
This poem comes from Linda Pastan’s book called Queen of a Rainy Country, published in 2006. The first line of this poem restates the title and gives the reader an idea of what it’s going to be about. The second line adds a twist to what the reader may think the poem is about because it gives a negative feel to the idea of marriage. She goes on to say that she was charmed by his “dangerous family history,” which is written in dactylic meter. I believe that is meant to give the line more meaning and cause it to stand out. The next line begins to describe her husband’s physical attributes, starting with his muscles being described as “innocent” and “bulging.” The next line is a simile comparing his muscles to weapons hidden underneath his shirt. There is some contrast between the ideas of innocence and weapons. The imagery of them being “hidden” could be used to mean that he was hiding more than just the muscles. The next line describes the ties he would wear and how the colors alluded to a sunset. Just from the imagery in these two lines, the reader can begin to visualize a picture of what this man looks like. There is a noticeable shift in the next stanza because the poet goes from talking about her misconceptions of her husband to her husband’s misconceptions of her. She says she was charmed by the fact that he assumed she was a docile woman when she mentions her “serenity,” when really she was just a “mirror waiting to be cracked.” He also assumed her to be a domesticated woman and do the chores of a housewife, like preparing meals. She goes on to reflect about how delusional they both were about each other in the third and second to last lines. The last line of the poem is my favorite by far. I love how throughout the whole poem, the reader is expecting it to end in divorce when really, they have been very happy with one another. This poem relates to an interview I found with the poet where she talks about being married in college and expected to “have a homemade dessert on the table for [her] husband every night.” She felt the pressures of marriage and stopped writing poetry for about ten years. She began writing again after a while and I think this poem was directly inspired by this time in her life.
Linda Pastan interview
Jump Cabling
by Linda Pastan
When our cars touched
When you lifted the hood of mine
To see the intimate workings underneath,
When we were bound together
By a pulse of pure energy,
When my car like the princess
In the tale woke with a start,
I thought why not ride the rest of the way together?
I picked this poem by Linda Pastan because it is full of imagery and double meanings. The poet does something very interesting with the poem by moving over the last word of each line in every line except the last. The whole poem is about jump starting someone’s car but could also be seen as jump starting a relationship between two people. Literally, the first line is about the two cars coming close enough together so that the wires could connect the two. It could also be taken to mean the two people are touching one another and beginning to feel close. Next, the hood of the car was lifted, which could also be seen as the people letting their guard down around one another in a relationship. After the hood of the car was lifted, they were able to see the “intimate workings underneath.” Once two people let their guard down in a relationship, they will be able to get to know each other’s true personalities and become intimate with one another. Next, the cars were “bound” together with the jumper cables just like two people bound to one another. When jumpstarting a car, you turn the working car and allow the energy to flow from there to the car with the dead battery. This is what the poet is referring to when she describes a “pulse of pure energy.” This could be the “spark” that two people in love feel when they are around one another. She then refers to her car as a “princess.” I believe she is referring to it being temperamental and not choosing to start; like the world will happen at her own sweet time. When she talks about how the princess awoke with a start, it calls to mind images from classic Disney movies where the princess is kissed by the prince and automatically awakes. The poet ends this poem with an interrogative sentence. She asks “why not ride the rest of the way together?” which can also be taken to mean that she wishes to spend the rest of her life married to her lover. While reading this poem, I had to look up the steps to jump starting a car because I have absolutely no idea how to do it myself. I have attached the link that gives step by step instructions and it goes along with the steps in the poem pretty well.
Steps to Jump Starting a Car
To A Daughter Leaving Home
When I taught you
at eight to ride
a bicycle, loping along
beside you
as you wobbled away
on two round wheels,
my own mouth rounding
in surprise when you pulled
ahead down the curved
path of the park,
I kept waiting
for the thud
of your crash as I
sprinted to catch up,
while you grew
smaller, more breakable
with distance,
pumping, pumping
for your life, screaming
with laughter,
the hair flapping
behind you like a
handkerchief waving
goodbye.
The poem “To A Daughter Leaving Home” by Linda Pastan was published in The Imperfect Paradise in 1988. The whole poem is about a young girl learning to ride a bike, but it is really a metaphor for a daughter moving out. It is written in free verse. It starts off with a parent reminiscing on the time when he or she taught their child something but it not very specific. The poet leaves who the speaker is ambiguous and we are not sure if it is the mother or father speaking. We learn in the third line that it is in fact a bicycle that the child is learning to ride. She makes it clear that the parent is right alongside the young girl as she is not yet steady on her own. Pastan uses imagery by comparing the round tires to the rounded mouth of the parent, looking on in shock as the daughter begins to pedal on her own. She goes on to say that the path the child has ahead of her is curvy. This could be a symbol or foreshadowing of the life the girl has ahead of her. Perhaps the poet knows that the daughter might face some obstacles later in life that she will have to overcome. The parent keeps waiting for the girl to fall. Pastan uses the rhetorical device of onamonapia when she says that the parent was expecting to hear a thud when the child fell. The parent runs to catch up with the girl, but her attempts are futile because the daughter goes faster and creates a bigger distance between them. It says that she grew smaller and more breakable as she continued to ride. If we look at this poem as a metaphor for a daughter moving out, I feel like that’s actually quite the opposite of what is happening. The daughter has grown older and become more strong and independent so she is moving out on her own. The daughter continues to pedal faster and is clearly very excited to feel so free. Pastan uses a simile when she compares the girl’s hair to a handkerchief blowing in the wind. The young girl on the bike is not actually leaving her parents but the older girl who is moving out is probably waving goodbye to her parents.
Reading of Poem
What We Want
What we want
is never simple.
We move among the things
we thought we wanted:
a face, a room, an open book
and these things bear our names--
now they want us.
But what we want appears
in dreams, wearing disguises.
We fall past,
holding out our arms
and in the morning
our arms ache.
We don't remember the dream,
but the dream remembers us.
It is there all day
as an animal is there
under the table,
as the stars are there
even in full sun.
The poem “What We Want” is written in free verse and does not rhyme. It is very typical of the poet because she often writes about common, everyday experiences but is able to reflect on them in a deep way. I love how the way this poem is written is very simple but she is talking about a complicated matter, which she says in the second line. She goes on to talk about how materialistic people can be and how sometimes we obsess over things so much that they become a part of us. Those things are just what we think we need but what we actually need sometimes appears to us in our self-conscious. We move among our desires in our everyday life but our true needs come out in our dreams. She uses a metaphor to show that our true needs sometimes wear “masks” so it can be difficult for us to tell what is truly necessary. Sometimes, we are not able to recognize these necessities when we awake because they appeared in a different, and most likely complicated manner, in our dreams. Also, we forget the dream once we wake up, but it will always be there in our subconscious. It is as though we know that there is something we should remember once we wake up but we are unable to. She uses personification when she says that the dreams remember us, despite the fact that we do not remember it. She uses a simile to compare the dream to an animal that hides from view during the day. She uses another simile to then compare the dream to the stars. It will always be there, we just can’t see it during the day. It is blocked out by our conscious mind; much like the light from the stars is blocked out by the bright sun.
Reading of the Poem